Our Publications

Through our public resources we provide manifold insights from our work. Our intention is to create mutually inspiring exchanges between academics, practitioners, teachers and trainers in the field of conflict transformation. Our Berghof Handbook for Conflict Transformation offers a distinct platform for international exchange and creative discussions. We also run several publication series: the Berghof Papers, Berghof Policy Briefs, as well as the Berghof Educational series. In addition, we also release multimedia materials and provide input papers, project reports and other resources, which we feel are useful to our partners in the field. Our resources can be purchased in our shop. Most publications are also available as free downloads.

The handbook is designed to help civil society actors in contested spaces and conflict settings provide safety for their communities. It outlines the key principles of the community safety approach and provides practical guidance on how to identify security challenges and how to implement strategies to counter them. The handbook was originally developed for civil society actors in Syria, but it can also be used in other contexts. The handbook is currently also available in Arabic.

This report was written in the context of the research project “Salafi-Jihadi Armed Groups – (De-)escalation Trajectories and Dialogue Options” conducted by the Berghof Foundation from November 2017 to December 2019. Case study research was carried out on Salafi-jihadi armed groups (SJAGs) in Mali, Somalia and Syria.

Author

Karin Göldner-Ebenthal & Véronique Dudouet, with support from Marie Migeon

Over the course of several years, the Berghof Foundation and the Political Development Forum (PDF) have focused on strengthening inclusive local governance in Yemen. This work focuses both at the local level in Hadhramawt and Dhamar and at the national level, to improve inclusivity, relaunch the local political process, and engage a broad range of stakeholders in discussions about the current challenges and potential future shape of local governance arrangements in Yemen.

Peace Process Support in Times of Crises. The National Dialogue Support Programme in Yemen 2014-16

A Project Report

The National Dialogue Support Programme's aim was to strengthen and protect the political transition process by supporting locally-owned and inclusive structures and mechanisms for political dialogue, informed decision-making and trust- and consensus-building. Yet, at the same time it had to respond to the political dynamics in Yemen which changed dramatically - and at times very quickly- between February 2014 and December 2016.

What are the main drivers of political transition and regime change? And to what extent do these apparently seismic political changes result in real change? These questions are the focus of this comparative study written by a mix of scholars and practitioners. This state-of-the-art volume identifies patterns in political transitions, but is largely unconvinced that these transitions bring about real change to the underlying structures of society. Patriarchy, land tenure, and economic systems often remain immune to change, despite the headlines.

The 2019 edition of the Berghof Glossary revisits the main principles and approaches that we use in our work to supports people and conflict parties around the world. For a second time, our team has embarked on a joint exploration in order to chart a shared understanding of what it takes to create “space(s) for conflict transformation”.

This exploration decidedly disengages from the prevalent discourses on youth, which are already quite well-covered in literature: ‘they are both troublemakers and peacemakers’ or ‘they are a special and potent category of peace agents, and
therefore need to be empowered’. Rather, the focus of this exploration is on existing
stories of dialogic and mediative efforts in the youth space, in an attempt to bring to light some insights usually left in the dark, and to stimulate a discourse hitherto absent. This is deemed particularly timely, given the inception of a myriad
of initiatives since the adoption of Resolution 2250.

Dealing with violent extremism (VE) has emerged as a central framework of analysis and policy-making in most Western and non-Western government agencies. It is also heavily shaping the programming of non-governmental agencies, not least due to the availability of related funding lines.
While there is an undeniable need to address violent extremism, this latest Berghof Handbook Dialogue takes as one premise that more often than not, analysis and programming to date often fall short in understanding and tackling the root causes of the phenomenon. Our lead article proposes: "Ultimately, addressing VE is fundamentally about conflict transformation, yet CVE/PVE interventions are rarely designed to be transformative."

Creating Opportunities To Work With Diasporas In Humanitarian Settings

Diaspora organisations (DOs) are newly recognised actors in the humanitarian space. DOs respond to crises such as those in Syria, Somalia, and Nigeria, which have shown the limitations of the traditional humanitarian sector. Their
contributions to emergency response are under-studied and, as our research shows, often misunderstood due to a gap in knowledge about their work. This report contributes to filling this gap. It sets out to understand how DOs contribute to strengthening humanitarian response in crisis settings. We explore opportunities to work with DOs in humanitarian action through six case studies of DOs operating in Somalia and Syria. Fieldwork was conducted in seven remote sites of humanitarian intervention,including in Nigeria, where DO actions are still limited. A context analysis for Nigeria provides an entry point into understanding the potential for DOs to contribute in the northeastern region.

Changing the past in our heads. A facilitator's guide to listening workshops

Educational & Multimedia

The history of this manual goes back to November 2012, when the Berghof Foundation’s Caucasus Programme gathered young people from Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia to learn how to record biographical interviews and discuss questions of history, memory and conflict. This was the starting point of a process involving Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian stakeholders of war-memorialization: the “Berghof History Dialogue Process”.

From Power Mediation to Dialogue Support? Assessing the European Union's Capabilities for Multi-Track Diplomacy

Research Report

This paper presents results from the European Union Horizon 2020-funded project “Whole-of-Society Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding”
(WOSCAP). It is one of three cross-country comparative assessments of EU capabilities for conflict prevention and peacebuilding with regards to various thematic 'clusters' of external intervention. The other two comparative studies deal with EU support for security sector reform and decentralisation reform. The empirical contents are primarily based on field research carried out by local partner organisations in Mali, Yemen, Georgia and Ukraine. For more information on the WOSCAP project, see the website http://www.woscap.eu/.

This small booklet aims at providing some guidance, inspiration and practical tools for those who are engaged in the planning and facilitation of dialogue processes or who are advocating for dialogue as a means for solving conflict. Initially, the publication started out as a handout, sharing insights into setting up and conducting constructive dialogues around contentious issues specifically in contexts of violence-prone conflict. Norbert Ropers, together with numerous insider mediators and external experts, drew it together based on joint decades of experience in accompanying and facilitating such constructive conversations and negotiations. Its audience were first and foremost local practitioners. The "handout" subsequently met with great interest and has been translated into Arabic and in parts into Spanish and Thai. Among the wealth of works on dialogue facilitation and methodology, its simplicity and its focus on working in settings of political and sometimes violence-prone conflict settings have set it apart.

Grounded in a series of contemporary case studies, this Handbook aims to contribute to the nascent debate about National Dialogue, bringing together insights and expertise from diverse regions. In doing so,
it seeks to present systematic reflections and offer practical advice. The Handbook thus supports conflict stake-holders and practitioners (both local and international) to grapple with the challenges they face and to pursue the most appropriate design for their particular context. Moving beyond simplistic approaches, the Handbook also seeks to provide an overview of National Dialogue processes, drawing from the expertise and practices of scholars and practitioners.

The peace education manual is the result of the cooperation between Berghof Foundation and the Tehran Peace Museum as part of the project “Promoting Peace Education in Iran”. It covers the main topics peace and peace education, violence and nonviolence, conflict and conflict transformation as well as global citizenship. Each section includes worksheets, ideas for the course conception and background material. The manual was specifically developed for Iran, but may also be used in other contexts as an introductory course to peace education.

“Undeclared Wars”– Exploring a Peacebuilding Approach to Armed Social Violence

Handbook Dialogue Series No. 12 - complete

In some countries, more civilians are being killed by armed gangs and criminal organisations than in traditional combat. Still, these pockets of armed social violence – "undeclared wars" marked, among other things, by criminal, gang and/or urban violence as well as extremist violence – have long received much less attention than politically motivated forms of armed conflicts. As their effects — social-political destabilisation, in some cases coinciding with high numbers of victims — are becoming more pressing, national and international actors have begun addressing the phenomenon.

In this 12th Berghof Handbook Dialogue, the authors of the lead article, Bernardo Arévalo de León and Ana Glenda Tager, argue that the inclusive and participatory methodologies offered by peacebuilding provide an operational strategy that would allow the international community to engage successfully with issues of armed social violence.
Five sets of respondents explore the actors, factors and dynamics of violence in different settings (among them Colombia, the UK, Nigeria, Mexico, Myanmar and Guinea-Bissau). They debate issues as diverse as the inter-connectedness of political, social and private violence, the need to work closely with government agencies, civil society and agents of violence, as well as the merits of specific participatory methodologies. They discuss what peacebuilding and other initiatives have achieved, and where they have fallen short.
The Dialoge is rounded out by an introduction by the editors and a "response to the respondents by the lead authors".

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This booklet seeks to amplify some of the hidden and forgotten voices in conflict. These stories of female ex-combatants from diverse political, religious, ethnic and national backgrounds show that women and their experiences of armed conflict have to be taken seriously for building sustainable peace. These are their stories as they tell them to each other. Six ex-combatant women collected the stories, reflecting as they did so on their reasons for joining the movements, their time as women in war, and how their lives unfolded once peace was restored. Theirs are stories of friendship and camaraderie, of life and death, of perseverance and resistance, and of rebuilding lives after war and continuing the struggle in peaceful ways.

Languages

English

Price

free of charge

I Have To Speak: Voices of Female Ex-Combatants from Aceh, Burundi, Mindanao and Nepal

This booklet seeks to amplify some of the hidden and forgotten voices in conflict. These stories of female ex-combatants from diverse political, religious, ethnic and national backgrounds show that women and their experiences of armed conflict have to be taken seriously for building sustainable peace.
These are their stories as they tell them to each other. Six ex-combatant women collected the stories, reflecting as they did so on their reasons for joining the movements, their time as women in war, and how their lives unfolded once peace was restored. Theirs are stories of friendship and camaraderie, of life and death, of perseverance and resistance, and of rebuilding lives after war and continuing the struggle in peaceful ways.

NE नेपाली भाषा: This booklet seeks to amplify some of the hidden and forgotten voices in conflict. These stories of female ex-combatants from diverse political, religious, ethnic and national backgrounds show that women and their experiences of armed conflict have to be taken seriously for building sustainable peace. These are their stories as they tell them to each other. Six ex-combatant women collected the stories, reflecting as they did so on their reasons for joining the movements, their time as women in war, and how their lives unfolded once peace was restored. Theirs are stories of friendship and camaraderie, of life and death, of perseverance and resistance, and of rebuilding lives after war and continuing the struggle in peaceful ways.

On December 11, 2019, the Berghof Foundation hosted a confidential expert workshop on “Salafi jihadi armed groups – (De)escalation trajectories and dialogue engagement”, with funding and support by the German Foundation for Peace Research and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. This workshop aimed to discuss findings and policy implications from a two-year research project based on in-depth interviews with experts and practitioners in/on Mali, Syria and Somalia. It also offered a space for peer-exchange and mutual learning between organisations active in the field of dialogue engagement with Salafi-jihadi armed groups, including governments, international organisations and INGOs. Discussions addressed questions such as: What are specific ‘ripeness’ factors and entry-points for dialogue with Islamist armed groups, in order to reduce violence or pave the way for a peaceful political settlement? What is the role of ideology and religious-based dialogue in incentivizing behavioural de-escalation? What strategies are helpful in fostering a conducive environment for engagement, while mitigating spoiling behaviour within the (global) Salafi jihadi scene? What are future options for dialogue engagement by local bridge-builders as well as international third parties? This workshop report summarises the content and outcomes of these discussions.

This policy brief highlights recommendations for evidence-based policy making on pathways to conflict de-escalation with Salafi jihadi armed groups. It proposes a more nuanced public discussion of the topic. This brief draws mainly on the research report “Dialogue with Salafi jihadi armed groups: Challenges and opportunities for conflict de-escalation” which concludes a two-year research project based on case studies in Somalia, Syria and Mali.

The handbook is designed to help civil society actors in contested spaces and conflict settings provide safety for their communities. It outlines the key principles of the community safety approach and provides practical guidance on how to identify security challenges and how to implement strategies to counter them. The handbook was originally developed for civil society actors in Syria, but it can also be used in other contexts. The handbook is currently also available in Arabic.